Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Philip de Rim
PHILIP or PHILIPPE de Rim or de Remi (1246?–1296) was long treated by English authorities as an Anglo-Norman poet, to whom were assigned two romances, called respectively ‘La Manekine’ and ‘Jehan de Dammartin et Blonde d'Oxford.’ Both show a close knowledge of Scottish and English life and topography in the thirteenth century, and were first published by English societies—the former by the Bannatyne Club in 1840 (ed. Francisque Michel), and the latter by the Camden Society (1858, ed. Le Roux de Lincy). The unique manuscript of these poems, however, which is in the National Library at Paris (76092 Fonds Français), includes besides them several poems of Philippe de Beaumanoir (1246?-1296), a well-known jurist and poet, who compiled the ‘Coutumes de Beauvaisis.’ There is little doubt that Philippe de Remi and Philippe de Beaumanoir were identical; the latter, a younger son, held land at Remi, near Compiègne, was long known as Philippe de Remi, and became Sire de Beaumanoir by the death of his elder brother Girard. Moreover, the poems attributed to Philippe de Remi show an intimate acquaintance on the part of their author with Beauvaisis and adjoining country (Bordier, Athenæum Français, 1853, p. 932). The poems prove that Philippe had visited England, possibly in the suite of Simon de Montfort. Simon's family held land in Clermont and at Remi itself; and in June 1282 Amaury de Montfort, Simon's son, granted Philippe some lands in fee, ‘pour l'amour de li et pour son bon serviche’ (see ‘Pièces justificatives’ to Bordier's Philippe de Beaumanoir, No. xiv, pt. i. p. 108). From 11 May 1279 to 7 May 1282 Philippe was bailiff of Robert, count of Clermont, sixth son of St. Louis; from November 1284 to 1288 seneschal of Poitou; in 1288 seneschal of Saintonge; in 1289 and 1290 bailiff of Vermandois; in the course of 1292 seneschal of Saintonge, bailiff of Senlis, and bailiff of Touraine; and again bailiff of Senlis from March 1293 till his death in the beginning of 1296. The ‘Coutumes de Beauvaisis’ was begun while he was bailiff of the county of Clermont, and finished in 1283. ‘Le Roman de la Manekine’ and ‘Le Roman de Jehan de Dammartin et Blonde d'Oxford’ were probably composed by him between 1264 and 1279.
[The chief authority is the biography of Philip of Beaumanoir, by M. H. L. Bordier, in Philippe de Remi Sire de Beaumanoir, Jurisconsulte et Poëte National du Beauvaisis, Paris, 1869-73, in two parts, pp. 1-422; the second part contains his complete poetical works. The identification of Philippe de Remi with Philippe de Beaumanoir has since been confirmed with new proofs by M. Edouard Schwan in the Romanische Studien herausgegeben von Edward Boehmer, iv. 351. The best edition of the poems of Beaumanoir is that of M. Hermann Suchier (Société des Anciens Textes Français), 2 vols. 8vo, 1884-1885. The Coutumede de Clermont en Beauvaisis has been edited by Thaumas de la Thaumassière (1690) and Count Beugnot (1840).]